I’m currently following Sweet Spot base plan (high volume) and notice that a collection of seemingly gratuitous adaptations are suggested pretty much every day. Since it’s base training there is little progression prescribed, and the adaptations swap out basically equivalent workouts.
For example, it will swap a 4.2 for a different 4.2 endurance workout, or shuffle Tues/Thurs workouts back/forth. Often it will suggest an adaptation one day only to undo it the next.
Is anyone else experiencing this? I would expect the ML to be detuned enough to filter out this degree of precision.
I experience bursts of this too. I’m just wrapping up SSB1, then General Build, then SSB2. A couple weeks ago it would frequently juggle around my January SSB2 workouts, and I would usually try to skip those adaptations.
Overall I really appreciate adaptive training, but it has it’s quirks for sure. For me those are:
Why are you adjusting anything in January? It’s so far away. If it’s changing now it will SURELY change again before January. Leave me alone.
Why are you adjusting V02 workouts in my build phase? I think my PL started around 1, is still 1, and I don’t think I’ve done a V02 workout yet as part of SSB1. My FTP has gone up and I guess that’s it… but my V02 PL is 1 and I think it was also 1 when the the plan was scheduled.
Why do I have to accept ALL adaptations? I don’t want to accept adaptations like the above that are so far away or that I don’t think make sense. Plenty of time there are some good adaptations which apply to my next few workouts and are related to the energy systems I’m actually training. I’d love to accept those, and then say “skip the rest”.
Regardless, still a fan and getting served good workouts. I expect once I start training V02 and establish my actual power level the adaptations will also figure themselves out.
The only thing I would change is that I don’t see much value in adapting more than the next week or two’s workouts. Or maybe I just don’t need to know about them; it’s just noise. If I could choose to turn of all adaptations beyond 2 weeks out, I would.
I get this too but for me I think its my fault, I will frequently select a higher level alternative as I’m trying to boost my AI FTP and have the room for more volume/TSS. It seems to want to keep me at a set TSS for the 4 week block, if I do a 30 min longer workout it will make my next workout 15 min less, and a workout next week 15 min less or something like that. Kind of annoying because I’m trying to add more work, asked in the AI FTP thread about the best way to do this but didn’t get an answer yet.
Yup, Im experiencing same phenomenon too on polarized MV base… seemingly senseless constant shuffling around of the same group of endurance rides. changes then changes back-- changes again then changes back. Happens more than twice/week - no identifiable reason
For this reason, I suggest you switch to the Mid- Volume Plan if you decide not to use AI FTP detection at the moment. You can skip a Workout on the Mid- Volume Plan and your Training Plan will adapt accordingly. That’s not an issue at all. This would save you brain power as you won’t have to choose Alternatives for every Workout or worry about the taper week. That will get taken care of for you, and will ensure your training is progressing at an optimal rate in relation to your unique fitness, ultimately improving your chances of success with the Plan.
Ooooh, exciting, let us know how you get on! I’m hoping to schedule a Science of Getting Faster Podcast to discuss Polarised Training in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled for that!
I am open to trying that, I had always gotten the impression that if you are inconsistent with the adaptive training (ie skipping a workout on a regular basis or choosing an easier alternate, for me one that would take less time) it would throw things off more than low volume +1 Train Now workout approach. However, I think my issue with the constant adaptation suggestions is because low volume is attempting to restrict my TSS and time each week and within the block.
What is the best method to switch into Trad Base mid volume? Like what steps do I take to replace my current plan of LV Trad Base I, II and III?
I’ve always had good luck simply deleting and then bedding in a new plan. I think I’ve even done this mid-plan; IIRC when you add the new plan with retroactive start date, it only schedules current/future workouts and will adapt to your current progression levels.
I feel like I am experiencing something similar as well. I currently doing mid-volume polarized base and I fee like my endurance workouts will flip back and forth between workouts of similar PL. Sometimes duration will change from 90 minutes to 120 minutes or vice versa but the adaptations are seemingly not meaningful changes. This was my second adaptation this evening after completing an endurance workout:
You can seamlessly change the volume of individual training blocks as shown in the article above or you can delete and re-add your Training Plan, also explained in that article.
The Low Volume Training Plan is not limited by TSS, but instead is operating within duration parameters, ensuring to keep it truly Low Volume. The team are working on a feature that will give athletes more autonomy on how long they want to workout each day, which would prevent this dilemma. Hang tight!
Skipping a Workout will not throw off Adaptive Training! Given your case, I think this is definitely the best option at the moment.
The ole’ switcheroo! Adaptations like that can be confusing, where you needed to have some increased duration Wednesday, but received an adaptation for Thursday to not have the same workout twice, and Virginia happened to be the closest match.
We’re actively rolling out improvements on this adaptation logic as a matter of constant improvement, so occurrences like this will happen less and less!
I have been doing sweet spot base Mid-Volume Part 2 and have noticed that it wants to always lower my sweet spot work out on Sunday. I finish these workouts pretty well and I wasn’t sure why it kept trying to lower my progression level. I was saying it was hard on Sunday at first but have lowered it to Moderate the last couple weeks because it was more realistic. But it continues to want to lower my progression on these days.
I do have a feature request for this however. I would like the ability to accept one of the adaptations but not all of them. My example, I wanted to except a VO2 increase workout but not the sweet spot workout decrease, but there is no option for this. You either except it all or none. I ended up adding it manually since it was the last hard week of the plan but this ultimately broke the plan for that day. Is it possible to accept one or two days of the adaptation with out excepting all of them? I was going to create a new topic but this looked like a good spot to discuss this as well.
